10 Tips for Begining Coaches

This article was my first writing to be published on the national website Prepvolleyball.com!  It was released in November on 2007.  Since then I have had 2 more published and am looking forward to writing more! Hope you enjoy….. 

Perhaps 13 years of coaching doesn’t fully qualify me as an expert on this topic, but after training several first time assistants in club ball and going through multiple freshmen and JV coaches in my program, I have come up with several observations that you may find interesting. While I have coached boys and girls volleyball, this article focuses more on the girls’ game and philosophies rather than actual techniques and systems. I always welcome questions and comments as I’m sure differing experiences could lead to some different observations from the coaching world.

1. It’s been said a million times, but one more won’t hurt; Girls don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.  It sounds cliché but this simple truth can explain so many breakdowns in communication, expectations, and even performance.  A passionate caring coach will almost always draw more from his players than a technical genius who seems cold and results driven.

2. Coach to correct the problem, not the symptoms of the problem.   Why did Suzie just hit that ball off the back wall?  There are a lot of coaches out there who would stand on the sideline with their hand over their head like a swan screaming, “SNAP Suzie, SNAP!”  Sorry coach, no amount of wrist snapping is going to fix the fact that Suzie was way under the ball because of bad footwork.  Perhaps it even started from Suzie not transitioning to the proper place to begin her footwork!  Look for the start of the problem, not the necessarily the end result.

3. Have Confidence.  I see a lot of young coaches with so much to offer that are completely unsure of themselves.  I’ve got news for you: players see through that immediately!  When you don’t believe in yourself how can you expect your players to believe in you and give their all?  They may like you, but if there is no confidence in you, performance, effort and improvement will lack.  You are coaching for a reason: you have more knowledge and experience than your players and they want to learn, step up and teach them!

4. Be Credible.  Jeff Jansen in his book, “The 7 Secrets of Successful Coaches,” cites credibility as the single most important factor for coaching success.  I would highly recommend this book for any coach both experienced and just starting.  Credibility goes hand in hand with confidence as a coach.  It’s okay not to know everything, but it should probably bother you when you don’t!  If you are consistently stumped and not finding the answers, your players can lose respect for you and not believe you when you really do know what you are talking about. 

5. Work as hard as you expect your players to work.  “Come with” inspires much better than “go do.”  If they see you well prepared, energetic and passionate, your players are much more likely to display those same qualities. 

6. Get better.  Making players better is the goal right?  Then we should have the same goals for ourselves as coaches.  I hate being asked a question that I can’t answer about this game.  I feel like I owe it to my players to be the best I can be.  Therefore I constantly observe other coaches, watch matches, read articles and attend clinics.  Don’t limit who you think you can learn from either.  I’ve learned some great things from coaches not as experienced as I am.  Even learning how to present the same thing in a different way can be immensely useful.

7. Work to Create Constant Improvers.  Do your players get better when you aren’t coaching them?  If you’ve equipped them with the self analysis tools and led them to the right technical discoveries, the answer should be a huge “yes.”  On the other hand if you constantly tell them what they are doing wrong and lecture about every little thing they do, many players become dependant on the coach for feedback and have no idea how to correct their own problems.  Try asking more questions to lead your players to figure out their own solutions. This type of guided discovery creates players who constantly improve whether you are there or not.

8. Have a Plan.  Most people who fail don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan.  After coaching for 13 years and having hundreds of drills in my arsenal, I still find myself at a loss when I don’t have a practice plan.  Practice planning can be as simple as having a goal, and writing up enough things to do to fill the time that will work towards that goal.  As you gain experience and expertise, other factors will be added to your planning including balancing conditioning, team building, skills work and strategy work.

9. Are you training to play or playing to train?  This is a huge philosophical debate in coaching circles.  Do you run controlled technique drills until perfection is reached or do you play out points to get the random training and teach flow of the game?  Arguments can be made on both sides but the key is that you understand the arguments and have a philosophy of your own.  A team that focuses on skills and drills will play great technical volleyball but may struggle out of system.  A team that focuses on scrimmaging and playing points out in practice may win more and be more comfortable in random situations, but might not improve technically as much as the team that has drilled continuously.  

10. What works now versus future development.  One of the most difficult coaching decisions somewhat unique to volleyball, especially when coaching younger players, is the debate between doing what works to win now and training for future success.  In most other sports doing things the right way directly correlates to winning.  This isn’t necessarily the case in early stage volleyball.  For example a 12 year old team that serves well, drops all of its players off the net, and doesn’t risk three hits or big swings all the time will probably win more games than a team that is trying to learn transition, blocking, and pass-set-hit volleyball.  Is winning now important?  Sure it is, but how much development and proper training time are you sacrificing to win a few more matches?  Finding a balance is the key and articulating your philosophy early on can help you make decisions and help parents understand why less talented teams might beat your properly trained team.